A Scythe and A Cane
by gealex99
Summary: Rosewick, after season two- It all starts with a note. Their whole love starts on one night, with one heist, with one simple note. Nine words is all it took for everything to start. The only question is did that note make everything spiral and fall apart or start something brand new. Did it start a new life with joy and happiness or did it destroy the lives already living.
1. Chapter 1

A Scythe and a Cane

This a story I thought would be interesting as it is ROSEWICK so if you don't like that then don't be here. This takes place a month after season two and also there a couple of things set up

Roman escaped Jail

Roman is our Antihero

Neo and Junior are Romans only friends

Roman, you won't be able to tell whether he has a heart or not, don't question it

Ironwood has left the city

And finally if you didn't know it, Rosewick is a ship between Roman Torchwick and our protagonist Ruby Rose

_**Roman's POV**_

The busy noises of cars whizzing by on Vales cramped streets were soothing to a man like me. The chill in the air gives me a perfect reason to pull out a cigar and put it up to my chilled lips. From the glowing stick I puffed out some smoke thicker than the cloud of worry in my head. Ice Cream called in sick today, humph probably ate too much of the stuff after our last payday. Today wasn't like one of me and Neo's personal heists it was another contract from Cinder, seems like it's always a contract from Cinder. She didn't care what I did in my free time or where I stole things for her just as long as I stole Dust. Giving me a chance to plan out my own gigs but today wasn't that, I was robbing an armored car Cinder "suggested" I rob. But after my breakout, and our attack on Vale's streets, heat has been high and without Neo here I'm of course worried. Kitty Cat wants my head, Red shows up everywhere on coincidence and their other six friends would do anything for them making my job **very** difficult. I know robbing an armored car out in the open will make sure things don't go smooth, but I can try, and I just want to get out of this damn cold.

"Hey Mutts!" I directed to the six white fang goons Cinder left me. With a gestor of my cane, to the two SUVs we had, they started getting in the cars. Twirling my signature weapon on my fingers I walked in my suave manner to the two SUVs. The interior of the military registered vehicles, that Cinder made me steal, was all black leather and had a musty air to it. Too bad that feeling will be gone when someone starts shooting holes into it. We reeved up the engines and started off crossing into the highway in front of us.

"Pick up the pace" I said coldly as I saw my target in view seven cars ahead of us. The driver did as told and accelerated our car making our second one behind us follow with. The silly civilians honked their horns at us giving me a sly grin knowing I was probably going to ruin their day right now. With a move of my leather gloves I opened up the top hatch of our vehicle letting a cold winter breeze rush through us all. Gripping my hat with my left hand I slowly rose myself to the top of the car as it accelerated. When my full torso was out in the open air I raised up Melodic Cudgel aiming it at the green armored dust transport two cars ahead of us. With a small smirk as my bangs blew through the breeze I pulled the trigger making Cudgel emit its signature hiss of a shot. The blaze of my round made its way towards the jackpot hitting its back sending it flying over a highway railing.

"Let's move" I stated coldly as I opened the door of our now stopped car walking past the burning cars hit in the crossfire. I took a glance towards my damage taking pride in my work as the glow of fire illuminated my face and the sounds of people recovering filled my head. Paying no mind I walked over the now destroyed railing looking down at the now turned on its back armored car.

"Shit"

"What's the problem bos… oh I'll call the bullhead"

"You do that" I replied in an irritated tone, playing with my cane I gestured to the others. "You two set up a perimeter, you three help me unload this thing"

Making a leap, I landed with dirt kicking up around me followed by the mutts repeating what I did. I started walking over the truck opening it up with my cane wrapped around the handle. The goons started to go inside grabbing any crate they could big or small just filled dust. I always do enjoy a good vault whether it's mobile or not. I even decided to get my gloves dirty and pick up a crate myself. Walking over to the now half empty truck I walked over to a spilt over dust crate. I flexed my gloves and picked it up walking out with my cane looped around my shoulder. My shoes clacked as I started to go put it in the stack of crates we made but another clack was made, one I didn't like! With the shattering of wood splintering my trench coat I looked up to see where the round came from that hit the crate.

"Why hello Red, you seem to show up everywhere, I think you may be stalking me" I said with a snarky grin while using my cane in motions as I talked. I lifted up Cudgel about to fire at the sniper aimed at me but then thought better.

"Oh Red, your never alone are you"

Turning my torso around with my muzzle still raised I looked up at the girl behind me on another raised up road above me.

"Here Kitty Kitty" I teased as I pulled the trigger sending a round straight to her. I figured to be nice I wouldn't use one of my explosive rounds that would blow her pretty ears off, rather settling using my regular bean bag rounds, the ones these students used all the time. She went flying back like anyone would from an explosion but I knew she would live, she would, I promised myself no deaths this run, that shopkeeper last time made Neo mad at me. Hearing the grunting of men behind me I already knew what I would find when I gracefully turned on my heels to where I left Red. Of course what I found was the scythe wielder beating my men to a pulp. Watching little red beat the big bad wolves was really adorable… wait where did that come from? Humph… that was… I don't. Lifting my Cudgel I jumped up on top of the armored car while she finished off what was left against her. Looking around I saw that now joined behind her stood Junior's infamous blondie trouble maker, kitty cat, and the heiress

"Wow you four do like to show up like gum on my shoes"

"GIVE YOURSELF UP TORCHWICK!" Kitty Cat shouted at me

Calmly and collectively I gestured to all four with my cane "And why do I do that"

"Or we will repeat what happened at the docks and the highway chase, we will kick your ass" Blondie said with confidence at me

"Yea" Red said as she slapped hands with the girl somehow telling my they have a special friendship to do that in battle. Sister's maybe? If they were maybe Red could get curves like her sister too… wait no Red looks great the way she is… wait why am I thinking this? I barely know this girl who I should very likely kill and most likely will, besides **she's like 15!** Oh no they are seeing you have an internal argument, make a snarky comment.

"Well if we repeat what happened last time that means I will escape once again, that what you guys want?"

"Of course not" the schnee replied

"New to sarcasm I guess" I mumbled under my breath

Checking my watch I noticed it was time to make an exit. Though I can't do so with these kids watching me.

"Here before you take me in, take this as a memento" I said tossing my replaceable cap in the air. Doing as I suspected all four unloaded a dust round into my round cap ending with Red catching it with the tip of her scythe.

"Now that's no way to treat valuable merchandise" I said dusting off myself in a smug way, "No way to treat my hat either"

"Oh the cops will treat you well in prison Torchwick"

"Boys in blue can piss on me if they want but I'll never be in prison long. Besides you have no way to track me if I make my escape"

"Don't we" Blondie said so as she took the hat from red lifting it above her head with pride as if she won something

"Nope" I mumbled as I pulled out the black cylinder from my inside jacket pocket. Flicking up the top a red light was introduced to the misty area but was suppressed as my finger covered it.

_**Ruby's POV**_

The last thing I heard before everything went blurry was Roman mumbling something under his breath as a glow illuminated himself. As my eyes were blurred as if I needed glasses I slowly rose my head looking around.  
"Yang, Blake, Weiss!" I shouted out their names as I struggled to stand up wondering what happened.

"RUBY's AWAKE" I heard the familiar voice of Yang as she started running over to me tackling me in a hug that almost knocked me out again.

"Xiao Long, be careful" Weiss scolded.

I looked around the area noticing we were still where we were before. There sat a flipped over armored car with a few yang's fist sized dents in it telling me she must have gotten angry. The small craters in the ground were where we left them and loose dust crystals were rolling around. The only things missing from the scene I last saw, were Roman, his hat, and the crates of dust.

"What happened?"

"Romans hat that he gave us was rigged with an explosive with some knock out gas in it" Blake said irritated

"How long was I out guys?"

Weiss started analyzing what happened, "We were all knocked out for 10 minutes but you 30 minutes. I think because you are younger the gas had more of an effect on you"

"Which made yang punch walls and me punch myself for letting roman get away"

"Don't blame yourself, I decided to pick up his hat" Yang mentioned

"Guys none of us should blame any of ourselves. Roman is just too good" I piped in not wanting them to feel guilty.

" Yea I guess so" Blake said, the three started to walk away as I could tell all four of us had seen enough of this corner of the streets of downtown vale. We all started walking when I noticed something irritating in my boots. As I saw them all walking away I bent down and stuck my hand in my boot to pull out a sheet of paper. I looked at the fancy and _**suave**_ writing on it. It read…

"Goodbye Red, hope I didn't hurt you guys too much"

I couldn't tell if it was a snarky comment in writing or if…. Torchwick actually cared. You can't really tell on paper. I decided to keep to myself and put the paper in my pocket, heading off to the warm safety of Beacon where everything was safe.

_**Romans POV**_

Why….. Why did I feel the need to write that down? I was riding in the bullhead more confused than the smoke I was creating trying to figure out where to go in the wind of the airship. Putting the glowing cigar up to my lips I questioned myself. Why didn't I kill them all, more importantly if I didn't kill them why did I even leave a note? It was just pure instinct that made me do it, but that wasn't… Torchwick. That was the man I killed a long time ago, that was Roman so why did I act like him now. Why did I use my snarky charm to leave something sincere? Why wasn't I being an asshole…? WHY DID I DO IT! Can't think about it too much, maybe… no can't talk to Neo about this, I don't even know how she would respond to me having feelings, she might say thank god finally he has something in his chest or she could gasp with her mute voice. I yelled to the pilot through the air blowing wildly in the bullhead

"Take me back to the warehouse I can get home from there"

With a simple nod he accelerated to our work place. Heading off to my dark hole in the ground, where nothing was safe.


	2. Feeling Suck- Chapter 2

A Scythe and a Cane- Chapter 2

New Feelings

_**Ok I was writing this story when halfway through I checked the RT website to find a lot of commotion going down. Before I move on to this story I would just like to talk about Monty Oum who is in the hospital right now. They haven't released what has happened but said they are not sure whether he will recover or not. I would like all of you, if your religious send prays to Monty and if you're not then please just hope he is ok. If it wasn't for Monty all the 6.2k stories RWBY have in this archive would never exist and our little dream world of Remnant would never exist. So please just have hope for Monty the man that not only created RWBY but created us.**_

_**Now back to the story after that heavy topic**_

_**Just a little Authors note before we get started. In my story Neo never did try and kill Yang just knocked her out. In my story Neo is evil but actually pretty nice. Her and Roman like I said our best friends leaning halfway on the father daughter deal but not the full way. They are still mostly partners but that sense of Dad/Daughter will pop up from time to time- Now to the story**_

_**P.S- when text pops up like this in a Neo scene that's her typed up words**_

_**Romans POV**_

I hate waking up. You always are cold when waking up, me especially as my pajamas consists of me shirtless. Another nuisance is I feel like I wasted so much precious time. I mean I could stay in bed all day, I'm well off and Cinder doesn't want more dust today. Back to problems of waking up a big one is having to relive in your head what you did yesterday to remember. Sure the heist was a success, I got all the goods, no one died, and the girls can have some pride in beating my men. It is all a win-win, but what I don't want to remember is losing my resolve yesterday. I still can't make anything out of what happened and what I did. Lifting the sheets off of me I hopped out of my bed, taking steps to my coat rack I reached into the pocket of my trench coat. I pulled out of my white coat what I was looking for. Following the noises of cars honking and people chattering I found my window. It wasn't as cold as last night but a breeze made shirtless me shiver. Opening up the silver plated case, which I pulled from my trench coat, I grabbed a cigar. Putting the stick up to my lips I flicked open my cold silver lighter which made it heat up. I placed the flame up to my cigar giving it embers and me a smoke. If I knew I would live long enough to die of cancer I might stop, but thankfully that is not the case. The internal argument about Red insured still making me wonder what has happened to me. I mean, I'm Torchwick for fucks sake. The suave gentleman with comical sarcasm but a ruthless criminal carrier. I'm a thief, killer, cheat. I'm wanted in three of the four kingdoms and one of those, Atlas, I'm on death row. So why was I finding a huntress cute, we should be trying to kill each other all the time. I'm an evil doer and she is a huntress of all evil, the ancient police, and the noble warriors. So why do I have this feeling about her that I can't explain. Blowing out a last puff of smoke into Vales streets I asked myself a final question before leaving to check on Neo. Who was Red and what is going on with me? Humph I bet Red doesn't have this kind of problem. Taking my cigar and throwing it into the busy streets of Vale I closed the window letting the cold suffocate and die. If only this feeling do the same thing.

_**Ruby's POV**_

"Ugggggggggg ITS MONDAY!"

"We know yang" I replied as we all started getting ready for classes

"But I'm going to miss the weekend funnnnnn" Yang kept whining as she started to get into her uniform  
"What part of last night was **fun**" Blake said in an agitated mood

Yang shrugged, "Punching people was fun"

"Torchwick is a dangerous criminal and people's lives are at stake yang. There is no room for fun when on missions" Weiss said

"Well we aren't on a mission" Yang stuck her tongue out

"Even on missions, we could try and have fun at least" I piped in

"We could try killing Torchwick first chance next time and ending this all" Blake said this while being cold as ice and thick as stone.

I didn't even want to think about it, killing another person? Who could even do that, I know Blake admitted she did before in the White Fang, but we forgave her for that. Doing it now is just…. I don't even want to think about it. I replied to Blake in my stern leader voice,

"Blake we can't do that, killing is wrong. We are huntresses now. It is our job to help no matter who the person is and that implies taking prisoners so they can be stopped and redeem themselves."

"We **KILL** grim! Are they helped?" Blake said a bit loudly.

"That's different" Yang said softly as she placed a hand on Blake's shoulder trying to calm her partner down.

Blake just got more aggravated and slapped Yang's hand away. She was now shouting at us, "NO its not! Grim are monsters, so we **KILL** THEM! Torchwick HE IS A MONSTER!"

"Blake, ruby is right. We are huntresses and killing people isn't even things we should consider" Weiss stated trying to calm the situation

"UGHHHH!" Blake screamed in the air out of frustration and left the room.

Yang looked down at the hand that Blake had slapped after she left. I tried to comfort her, "Yang she's… just been a bit on edge since Torchwick escaped prison after the attack."

Yang didn't look like she was helped and just shook her head out of it, "I guess your right…. She just needs some space" Yang walked out of the room trying to put back on her cheery mood.

"I can't blame Blake for thinking like that, the White Fang made her do some messed up things and after the massacre….. Well anyone would hate Torchwick"

"Yea" I said softly while Weiss just stared at me for a second, I couldn't make out what she was thinking in her Blue eyes, "What is it Weiss?"

"It just… I'm surprised you're so calm about this whole Torchwick ordeal. I mean you should hate him the most as you fought him the most… he's practically your arch nemesis. I got admit, you are doing a good job keeping a cool head" She gave me a pat on the shoulder as she walked out of our dorm room leaving me the last one in there. The only strange thing is… she's right. Why wasn't I feeling anything when It came to stopping Roman, why don't I feel anger or ambition or triumph or sorry or anything. I just feel like I'm doing it, no reason or aim, even though I know I'm glad I'm saving people and know that's why I'm hunting him I still don't feel it right now. Walking out my room with a puzzled look on my face I bumped into Jaune as he left his dorm.

"Hey Jaune" I sighed

"Hey Ruby, I'm glad I'm not the leader of your team, my jobs easy compared to yours"

"Yea… this whole Torchwick thing has gotten out of hand after he escaped prison"

Jaune looked down at his feet, "Humpf yea I noticed you guys coming back to Beacon latter then usual these past weekends. I also heard the heavy topic you guys were screaming about earlier…."

I just felt a headache come on when he mentioned that, "Please Jaune I don't want to talk about that anymore then I need to"

Still being awkward he looked down at his feet knowing this is a heavy topic that normally the fun teams RWBY and JNPR never thought about. Finally he spoke up, "Ok I will leave you to, but hey fair warning. My sister works at a small dust company and they have a big shipment coming in from Mistral"

This peaked my adventure and heroic interest, "Wait! Where is it being unloaded, the docks?"

"No it's being unloaded at a warehouse in the northwest"

"Thanks this could help us a lot Jaune, but by any chance can you get the Warehouse number from your sister" He nodded in agreement. My excitement of finding a clue was overcome by worry of what would happen. If we go to the warehouse and Torchwick is robbing the place…. Torchwicks death wouldn't sadden me entirely, but if Blake was the one that killed him we would most likely lose the Blake we knew. Lost in my deep thinking I didn't notice till a second after that Jaune was joined by NPR and leaving to class.

"Wait! Jaune!" He took a slight job back to me wondering what there was left to discuss with NPR waiting behind, "Jaune, please get me that location but when I go tomorrow for it… don't tell my team where I went"

"Ruby isn't it a bit dangerous for you to go alone?"

"No, I should be fine, it's a small company you said, not Schee's"

"But it's a big shipment, one Roman might not resist..." He shook his head not liking this. Reluctantly he let out, "Ok, well our team shouldn't be doing anything so if you need back up I'm on speedial ok"

"Of course Jaune, thanks"

"No problem, let's just get to class" He said this as he patted my shoulder, dragging me to a confused team JNPR that I now started walking with. As we all walked to Professor Port's class I put my hands in my hood pockets to realize something was in there. I pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper remembering it came from yesterday.

_**Goodbye Red, Hope I didn't hurt you guys too much**_

I looked at the half sheet in question same as yesterday. Wondering what was going through Torchwicks head when he put this in my pockets. Was he being nice and could I find something to redeem in the bastard like I told Blake, or was he just being a sarcastic ass. Oh well, maybe I'll ask him personally tomorrow. I scoffed out loud as I put the paper back in my pockets as I continued to class.

_**Romans POV**_

The small breeze blew my white trench coat around at its bottoms. I shook the embers from my cigar stuck in my teeth as I walked up the metal steps. I came along the door I was to the apartment I was searching for. Pulling the cigar out and throwing it on the ground, I pulled out a key with my other hand to unlock the door. Slowly creaking open the door I let the light of day bleed through the dark apartment. It seemed fairly clean just ill-kempt with the sink being full and blankets with pillows scattered on the floor. All of a sudden I heard a small cough from a distance, "hmg, mff" Following the sound of the small disturbance of silence I found an open door to a room. Strolling in with my cane at my side I found the girl lying in bed with covers all over her. On the side table sat a bowl of soup with what looked like as heat dying down along with a thermometer next to it. I decided to speak after seeing the comical but sad scene

"Hey Ice Cream, well I guess you really are sick" I chuckled out

Neo pulled out her scroll from under the covers and started tapping away telling me she was typing

_**Fuck You! **_It read

Putting up my hands in the air in defense I went on, "I'm sorry I couldn't make it sooner little one, but we had work. I told Junior to come in and check on you, didn't he?"

More typing issued

_**Yea he did, you could have come over after the heist Roman**_

I sighed at the sick girl "No I couldn't, Cinder kept me late. It was almost 2am till I was done working and the heist only ended on midnight!"

_**Fine I get it, how did the heist go anyway**_

I started to walk over and do things like check her temperature which was blazing and check on her health as I spoke

"It went fine, wish you were there though. Without you there I not only lost my resolve but got attacked by those four girls again"

This gained me a look of worry

"I'm fine"

She still gave me a cold stare

"The goods were fine"

Her eyes were as cold as Ice Cream

"I didn't kill anyone OK!"

She smiled

_**You know I don't like things getting messy, especially when its civilians Roman.**_

"They are the enemy" I stated bluntly

_**They are kids, no older than me Roman**_

I held her hand "But your my partner, I would never hurt you"

_**Let go of my hand, stop acting like my Dad its gross**_

She showed me this giggling a bit but then frowned again

_**It's no different from me you know Roman. No matter if I'm your partner and they're not, Kill, but don't kill kids **_

"Fine" I sighed knowing this was serious to Neo

Dropping the topic she smiled in accomplishment as she typed to me.

_**I did get some work done**_

"Oh really, do tell Neo" I said patting the little one on the head to make her feel triumpfent

_**I found somewhere for you to rob tomorrow**_

"You won't join me!"

_**Junior brought in a doctor, he said I should stay in bed rest for another 3 days and don't get out of bed rest before then**_

Not liking I wouldn't have her expertise on the job I reluctantly nodded, "Ok, I don't want to hurt your health. Now what is this job?"

Neo started tapping on her scroll again for a bit longer than usual. I felt a vibration come from my coat as I pulled the device out. Flicking it on with my black gloves I found out Neo had sent me a file. Opening the file I started reading as Neo held her head high.

"A warehouse in the Northwest is receiving a shipment of dust?"

_**I have a feeling it won't keep that shipment of dust to long thanks to you.**_

"Why thank you for the information Neo. Just for doing your job on a sick day I'm going to go pick up some Ice Cream for you"

She started fist pumping the air in victory as I got up to go back out. As I walked away to get the sick girl her treat I thought to myself. More dust to steal for Cinder, and it's a heist in the Northwest… hmm maybe I'll take the job.


	3. Chapter 3- Warehouses

A Scythe and a Cane-Chapter 3

Warehouses

Hey guys I'm going to have a little fight scene in this chapter and not like the one before it's a legit fight scene. Now I'm going to try an experiment in this chapter and if you don't like it tell me in the reviews and if you do tell me to keep doing it in the reviews. I'm going to add music to my fanfic. No I won't be typing out the lyrics but if I was to continue with this experiment, this is how it would work. I would tell you the two to one songs I have in the chapter and ask you cue them up in the YouTube. And in the chapter I will tell you when it would be a good time to play this song, now you don't have to for the fanfic to work I think it just works better with background music in fight scenes.

On a side note I would just like to say again, please have hope for Mounty Oum, we may not know what has happened to Monty but we can still hope he is ok

Also I realized after halfway righting this and already being at 1.5 k words that this chapter is going to be a bit longer than I expected…. Sorry. And also sorry as I took so long to post this chapter but I got a bit of writers block halfway through but I would like to say I'm loving the feedback and I want to thank you all for your support.

NOW ON TO THE SHOW

_**Have the songs prepared-RWBY Soundtrack DIE.**_

_**Next Day**_

_**Ruby's POV**_

"And then I took the Ursa by the neck…"

Professor Port was going on about his old stories nonstop. I looked over past all the drooling kids' faces to find Jaune. He had his steel hood up telling me he was able to get the Warehouse number we talked about yesterday. I looked over at the frozen clock seeing it slowly tick by telling me I had to wait an extra fifteen minutes. Then I would move on to lunch, then to Ooblecks class, then at whatever time I need to, the warehouse. Meanwhile an almost drooling me tried to find something to entertain myself. My scroll had died at least half an hour ago, while the rest of my team died as well. I looked over at my team sleeping except Weiss who was two rows down from me, eyes glued to Port's lecture. Quietly I unzipped my backpack shoving my hand into the darkness searching for anything to occupy the slowly moving time. That's when I found the note that I put in there intending to bring it with me on the mission tonight. My main goal was to stop Torchwick if he is at the warehouse tonight, but this one piece of paper is my one question to him. His penmanship is amazing, so I can't tell if it looks fancy to be sincere or not. I can picture Torchwick saying this to me in his signature tone while twirling his cane on his leather gloves, but for some reason I can picture something else. I somehow see the mascaraed criminal taking off the gloves and putting his hands on my shoulders, telling me to be ok. While I stare into his beautiful emerald eyes….. WAIT WHAT! HOW DID I EVEN PICTURE THAT! I don't know how I do but no matter how much I freak about it… I could still see it happening. NO! No Ruby Rose he is a dangerous **KILLER**! Maybe a handsome one, WAIT NO! Stop that Rose! This has been the weirdest self-argument I have ever had in my life. While thinking of what just happened out of nowhere, I didn't bother to notice the bell ringing right when it did. I tapped Blake and Yang on the shoulders waking them up, while Weiss had already left.

"Hey I will catch up to you guys in the cafeteria in a second. I have to talk to Jaune about something Ozpin mentioned to us in the weekly leaders class"

Yang responded in her usual cheery mood now fully awake, "Sure thing Rubes, come on Blakey, its pancake day and Nora is most likely going to destroy some shit. This is going to be fun!"  
Yang grabbed Blake by the arm running out the classroom with Blake sliding across the floor. She stared at me with her usual Blake glare,

"Oh Joy"

The sight made me stifle out a giggle. Jaune walked over to me in the now empty classroom.

"Hey I got the warehouse number you wanted"

"Nice" I stated while giving him a high five

"It's going to be at Warehouse 17 at the Northside in Warrens Warehouse Lot. My sis says the company is unloading the dust in the warehouse at 7pm tonight. Oob's class ends at 6:00 so you would have to leave right after class. You sure you shouldn't tell your team about this" he said with worry

"Positive" I sighed not so positively

"Well look at it this way, Roman may not even show up and if he does you can call on my team for backup"

"Yea but what's my excuse for leaving the school at 6:00?"

Jaune stood with cogs turning in his head for a second until his face made a look like a lightbulb flashed

"Umm I could take my team out for Chinese food, and we could say you are coming with us"

I grinned a bit, "That should work, but only if you bring me Chinese food back…. It's important to the mission"

"Sure it is, but before that it is not too late to tell your team. You sure you don't want to?"

"Yes! I can't risk it. I have to go because if we lose to Torchwick we lose Blake and if I go with them and Blake kills him, she loses herself"

"Fine I will stop bringing that part up. Come on, we need to go before Nora gets us all in trouble"

Just thinking of Nora blowing up the cafeteria stealing everyone's pancakes brought a smile to my face, but then realizing I would lose my pancakes too I used my semblance sprinting to the Cafeteria.

_**2 hours and 30 minutes later-Yea you don't get to see the awesome lunch scene… Be imaginative.**_

"Wait when were you going to tell me this?" Yang complained to me as I explained going out to get Chinese with JNPR

"I am telling you?" I said questionably playing the confused act

"I wish I could come but I got detention for helping Nora steal pancakes"

"Even if it wasn't pancake day both you and Nora would probably still have detention" Weiss scolded

Yang shrugged this off knowing Weiss was right, "Ok fine, It's just I don't like you going into downtown Vale alone, last time you were there a robbery happened at Dust till Dawn"

"Don't forget the whole Penny ordeal" Blake said behind her book

"Guys I will be fine, I will have Pyrrha and Ren to protect me. And Jaune can try to protect me. Also it's just Chinese food, were not going into alley ways with muggers in them"

Yang looked relentless not knowing whether she should allow it or not as my big sister. I saw my chance when Blake sat up

"Finished with that one, I'll be in the library. Bring me back some fortune cookies Ruby?"

As she opened the door to walk out I followed in pursuit, "Yea sure thing, I should start heading out too"

"Wait Ruby!" Yang sighed after to me as I ran out the door, Blake left to go to the library. As I walked out the door with Yang behind, I bumped into Jaune who had behind him Ren and Pyrrha.  
"You ready Ruby"

"Yea we heading out"

"Yes" Ren sighed obviously tired from what happened at lunch. Jaune led the way as I walked beside Pyrrha behind him with Ren behind all of us. We didn't make it two steps down the hall when a yellow figure ran in front of us staring at Jaune.

"WAIT! WAIT! Ruby I didn't agree to this" She said looking past Jaune at me

"I'll be fine"

"We'll make sure she is ok" Jaune piped up. Yang stood there and stared straight into Jaune eyes making him step back a bit in fear. She growled and put a finger on his chest

"If anything happens to her, I will rip you from the Arc family tree, got it!"

Jaune swallowed and nodded his head vigursly. Going back to her regular cheery, party mood Yang grinned with all her teeth

"Cool, hey Rubes mind bringing me back some fried rice"

"Sure thing Sis" I smiled, she stepped out of our way and we started walking again down the hall to the airships. Ren behind me just sighed and rubbed his head as we walked

"You two are light switches, it's always on and off certain moods with you two"

Pyrrha just chuckled making us confused. Jaune looked at her

"What's so funny what he said is true"

She spoke again, "Oh Jaune, Ren I thought you knew better with Nora. That's not a sister's thing between Ruby and Yang… that's just a girl thing"

_**Downtown Vale**_

I parted ways with team JNPR once we got off the airship, with a lot of reluctance from all of them. They suggested that they at least come with me but I disagreed. My team and I have been digging a grave in the underground world as we made a name for ourselves and painted targets on our backs. I don't want to get JNPR involved any more then I need to. Once we parted ways I rented a cab. As we drove to the location that I had set not too far from the Warehouse lot but not at it directly I noticed something. I had noticed how dark the night side of Vale really was. We passed so many people in the streets, Vale has always been crowded but these people didn't even look like they were from Vale. Every now and again we would drive past a crime scene as all the streets were littered with people with no good intentions. When fighting Torchwick in the bad side of Vale I guess I never noticed things like this. Never noticed all the people that needed help and who were stuck in a place like this. Finally after passing all of the people in the shady side of Vale we reached a more empty part of Vale. Obviously a richer side were no one walked out after dark. And in this section was Warrens Warehouse Lot, kind of convenient this side of town being empty if someone's robbing the place. I told the driver to stop at least one block from the Lot so no one would see me drive up to it. Checking my scroll letting it light the dark I saw it read 6:57pm. Now I have to stake out the place. The only question being will it be robbed at unloading time, after, or not at all? Taking out Crescent Rose I looped it around the roof of a building next to the lot, pulling myself up. Once on the roof I made a running start and leaped like a shadow, landing on one Warehouse roof. I started crawling around until eventually I reached on end of the roof and looked down into what seemed an endless field of copies. Looking past each Warehouse one after another 24…23…22…21…20…19…18…**17\. **There at Warehouse 17 the gigantic door sat open with trucks surrounding the place. Workers were unloading a small fortune of dust crystals in crates. Along with the five truck loads, about a dozen of armed guards with assault rifles surrounded the unloading. Five truckloads of dust all here, if Roman robbed one truck of it there is no way he is turning this down. Watching the men labor for about ten minutes I noticed them coming down to the last truck load, but also noticed a certain clack of a cane echo down the long rows of warehouses… Torchwick was here. I looked around trying to find the source of the sound but it bounced back and forth off of metal warehouses. As I searched for the source of the sound my eyes were set upon a small light coming from the ally between two warehouses, one of them was warehouse 17. The light along with the source finally reached out of the darkness as light slowly swept revealing Torchwick's grinning face, as he clacked his cane, and smoked a cigar. He kept clacking along the small makeshift ally as the Lot's lights also swept over the four dozen White Fang soldiers behind him. Either Torchwick knew about the guards or he really didn't want me messing up his plans if I showed up. He walked along when finally he and all his men reached in front of Warehouse 17 with all the guards raising their guns.

"Move along, this is a private company matter, if you do not step away from the premises we have authority to shoot!" That is when Torchwick took out his cigar throwing it to the ground and crushing the embers with his foot. In his smooth, suave, sarcastic tone he replied.

"Why look Perry, we showed up a bit late… now we are going to have to load all the dust back in the trucks"

The guards looked surprised at what he said but weren't as soon as Torchwick lifted his cane and shot the ground under them causing four men fly into the air with scorched faces. The other eight guards recovered and opened fire as so did the White Fang who had hidden behind cover when Torchwick fired. Having the advantage of cover in the mirage of bullets the White Fang soldiers were massacring almost all the guards. Bullets ripped through them giving them so many holes they were sponges, only they had soaked up blood rather than water. I had never seen more of a gruesome sight bringing back memories of the day of the train attack when I first saw a human death. We stopped them then letting them only kill four people and injure the rest but I couldn't stop them now. Six guards fell after the firing had stopped and they were riddled with bullets, as the two last guards opened fire on Torchwick knowing they would lose. As Torchwick's men fired back, their bullets were blocked by Warehouse 17. The two remaining guards made a decision as they were safe for the moment and started shouting at all the workers hiding behind crates. The workers started filing into an empty truck parked in the warehouse with the two guards joining them. The guards from the inside closed the trucks back door locking them all inside. But it was too late for hiding as Torchwick saw them close the door when he rounded the corner.

"Men surround the thing!" He barked as the White Fang soldiers surrounded the truck with Torchwick pulling out a cigar. When pulling out the cigar he stated orders, "READY!" When pulling out his lighter he shouted again, "AIM!" Then he flicked open the lighter and brought the flame close to the cigar. I knew when he would shout the next order but I wouldn't have it. Pulling out Crescent Rose I jumped off the roof of my warehouse causing them to jump. All of the White Fang soldiers pivoted their heads with the guns pointed at the truck still, and Torchwick just dropped his cigar in aggravation.

"Why hello Red!"

_**Roman's POV**_

And low in behold there she was as I thought. Guards I had to kill but those workers I did not! If Red hadn't revealed herself sooner like I wanted I would have had to shoot those people. Gladly that's not the case, I couldn't stand another meeting were Neo yelled at me with her eyes. But no civilians died, Red showed herself like I wanted, and I wasn't going to kill her like Neo asked me to, so all is good. Except my men who are getting hit with the blunt end of an oversized gardening tool. Looking over to my right was my now only two dozen men shooting at Red who was dodging every bullet. She was at the moment jumped in the air shooting her sniper, huntress stun rounds of course, down at my men hitting picking them off as she fell. When landing she swung her scythe around with agility while spinning in circles sending all my men flying through the air knocked out. A remaining six men surrounded her, as she stopped, aiming their guns in the air. They all looked as if they had pissed their pants when they raised their guns at the girl who had just beaten almost all of them up. She sported a small grin, telling me she outsmarted them when she stuck the tool in the ground, lifted herself around the handle, and sent herself flying in the air with the scythe. She landed on one of my men knocking him out as she jumped off his face. She jumped from one soldier to another landing her feet on their head knocking them out as she continued the circle. She finished the six off with that comical move then stabbed her tool down in the ground in victory. Just to make it even smugger I clapped my black leather gloves together to reveal myself to her making her victory grin disappear.

"Well, well, well… I would say you beat the White Fang mutts all the time because you always had a strong team but you just disproved that case"

"Torchwick!" She growled at me

"In all my glory" I said pointing my hands at myself with my elbow rested on my cane.

"I will stop you, and I always stop you if it involves killing" She said this pointing at the truck irritated with me for what I was going to do to the people

I lifted my cane speaking with it in my hand

"Oh don't be made at that Red! It was all a part of the plan to get you out of the shadows. Anyway you didn't really stop me killing did you dearie" I said this pointing at one of the guards riddled with bullets.

She saw who I pointed at and looked down at her feet. She did this for a moment as I heard weird sounds coming from her. Oh wait! I didn't… OH GOD NO… I may be a bad guy but that's just mean! Did I just make Red… cry…? I didn't mean…. SHIT! I tried to comfort her but still look like I didn't care

"Oh god Red!" smug like I said, "Stop crying for Christ's sake, it's not your fault" Shit my resolve was broken, I started getting sincere for the girl, "You can't blame yourself Red, I'm the bad guy! My men shot those guards on my orders because they fought back. You can't blame yourself for them losing a fight"

(Play Song Die-Optional) She raised her head wiping tears from her face and looked at me,

"Those people died protecting that dust and I WONT LET YOU TAKE IT!"

"Oh for fucks…" I was in mid-sentence as the gardening tool swung over near me and I stepped back. She came running towards me with a battle cry swinging her scythe at me causing me to swerve left and right dodging swings as I walked backwards. She got one lucky swing with the blunt end, sending me flying hitting the warehouse wall.

"This is just…" Trying to speak I was interrupted by stun rounds flying at me. Lifting my cane, with speed, up the round hit it. I started running along the wall with marks showing up behind me as rounds struck those spots. Lifting up my cane I fired a round behind Red causing her to shake a bit from the impact of an explosion behind her, but she stood her ground. She started running at me with the weapon raising it above her head about to swing at me. As she ran at me I ran back at her when we got close enough she swung down and I swung up as we locked weapons face to face. We both held our position moving back and forth as we were locked. Her eyes weren't angry like I thought though. They were sad. Focusing back on the battle I lifted my leg and kicked her under tripping her. She stood up swinging wildly at me making me deflect every hit with my cane. I ran away while shooting my flare rounds at her as she shot each one, with her sniper, in mid-air causing an explosion halfway between us. I now stopped running as we were four yards from each other. She started running at me with her scythe swinging from the right side this time. Quickly I flipped Cudgel around so I held the muzzle end, and then ran at her, meeting her in the middle. My cane handle looped around her left arm as I, with force, threw her hand back away from her weapon. Now to her right, next to her, I used a combo move after removing her left hand from the tool. I lifted my leg up and kicked her other arm from the side making it leave the weapon. Now with no hands on her weapon I kicked her away from it.

She gathered her resolve and stared at me with her sad eyes knowing she lost. That is when an airship started flying outside the warehouse that had an open door. Neo jumped out and landed in front of me with her parasol out.

"I'm sorry Red about what happened, Neo let's get out of here"

Neo took her parasol and used its effects to make us teleport back on the Bull head. I looked down at Red who was staring up at us

"Sorry Red but I really must go! But hey you stopped the robbery kid! Good work!" (Song should finish here if I timed it right) The engines revved up as we accelerated away from the scene. Leaving the poor girl with my knocked out men and a few stray bodies. I didn't think about it till know but she didn't bother having the other girls there, but with those girls gone I have at least a chance fighting. Taking out a cigar I lit it up with my lighter. I looked over at Neo who was looking out the window of the Bullhead.  
"Neo you should be in bed, what are you doing here?" She started typing

_**You had trouble**_

"I had it under control, I could have knocked out Red and left with the goods. How did you even know I had trouble" I stated a bit irritated how Neo wasn't in bed as she was sick

_**I don't think your safe doing missions alone Roman. So I put a monitoring device on you. It measures things like heart rate, fear, health. Like the one Beacon uses but upgraded**_

"Well that monitoring device should have told you I was fine, there was just some fighting but I could have gotten out with the goods"

_**I didn't say the fighting was the trouble you had Roman**_

She glared at me with a disapproving look.

"Well then what was the problem, I'm sorry I killed those guards but they opened fire on us" She was typing away at me in what I could tell was eye yelling on her part

_**DAMNIT ROMAN! That wasn't the problem either**_

"Then what was the problem Ice Cream!"

_**Take a look at this.**_

She brought her scroll to me handing it to me and folding her arms. There was a picture of my face along with bars with labels on the side. I read the labels and looked at the bars. Health- Good… Stamina-Was low… Fear-None… Anger-Medium range… Sadness-Low… Love-High. I looked at the last one with wonder. Neo tried to clear things up.

_**That is a screenshot from around thirty minutes ago, right when someone started putting an end to your robbery.**_

She gave me a glare like an angry daughter who I didn't buy a pony for.

_**That! That was your trouble Roman, why I had to pull you out.**_

"For Fucks Sake!"

That was the end of chapter 3 I really hoped you liked it. It was a bit longer than I expected but I wanted that fight scene in this chapter. I'm sorry it was posted a bit late but I had a bit of writers block.

Also I want to ask for some feed back

Tell me if that experiment worked. Tell me if you liked the fight scene, it was my first try writing one. And tell me if you like the story so far I know a lot of people have so far and I thank you for that.

So what do you think will happen with this new revealed thing about Roman, also how Ruby will respond to this if it is ever revealed to her that Roman has feelings for her? Find out next time on a Scythe and a Cane.


	4. Chapter 4- A Start

A Scythe and a Cane

A Start

A little note I didn't mention earlier, Roman is 21 in this story, along with most villains other than Junior, White Fang Lieutenant, and Neo. Neo is 16. Also sorry no action or adventure in this chapter, this is a more of a progressive chapter with a bit of comedy. And a lot of talking. With the fact about this being short and a progressive story I would like to state how this is were the adventure really starts. All of what happened before was more of an introduction.

_**Roman's POV**_

Love… that's new. Is it supposed to make me feel regretful? It's weird, one moment I want to wrap my hands around Red's neck and take life from her. But the next moment I want to wrap my arms around her, I want to kiss her. I wish Neo's monitoring device was wrong but I know it's not. And Neo, one moment she is mad at me saying that I'm being stupid, saying focus on the mission. Next Ice Cream is laughing at me and cracking jokes. But at points Neo is supportive. She says that I should just wait it out, follow what I think is right. Not easy for a man like me, a man with no morals can't tell what's right or wrong. But it still feels right, so Is Red changing me? Can the beast get his soul? Hmm in her eyes I'm probably nothing but a beast, no better than grim. I am Roman Torchwick, the cause of the "Massacre from Mountain Glen", the "Robber of Vale's Vaults" the "Crimes Criminal" all titles given to me by the people. If only people could realize I'm not bad, our leaders, the ones in control have done worse than me while portraying saviors. At least I'm honest about my bad deeds, honest about people I kill. While the ones in control create an army of kids and send them all to die protecting our **great **people. Honestly I could never convince Red that the leaders are not all good, I could never convince her kids like her die every day in every kingdom. Explain killing is always a necessary thing in our world. To be truthful I might not try, I must let people like her live in their fantasy world to let them hide from the real world. Hopefully my deeds at least let some of the real world bleed through to keep them on their guard…

Who am I kidding? What I'm doing is not good or could ever be considered good. I've never tried to make it like that…. But Red. She makes me want to prove my innocence? This is worse than I thought. I jumped a bit at hearing my name

"Roman?" Emerald stated

My feet were propped up on the table the time I was thinking this. With a cigar in my mouth and my cane resting on the table

"Hmm?"

Cinder glared at me with fire eyes. We sat at the round table as we called it. Cinder and me across from each other, with Emerald and Mercury sitting next to her. On my right sat Neo, my left sat the Lieutenant of the White Fang. In the middle between the two sides sat Adam and Junior. All making us a little circle of no good intentions. Emerald continued talking to me

"Did you hear what I said?"

"Yes about…." My eyes darted to the right to see Neo signing under the table.

_**Heists**_

"We have stolen roughly about Seven Hundred Thousand Lien worth of dust this week" I quickly stated saving myself

"And month?" Mercury questioned

"Stolen more dust then Schnee's produces in a month" I grinned smugly.

Junior stepped in, "How much of that will I be selling on the black market, which may be a bit much."

Cinder cleared her throat clearing the plans out for us

"Junior you will only sell what we made this week, Lieutenant half of this month's dust will go to supply your men, you will need the army for stage four. Adam I will make sure you get enough Lien from the sales to fund your robbery of Atlas technology, we will need those Mechs again. Roman keep up the good work, we will need more money and dust then we ever got before to move on to stage three or four."

We all nodded in agreement except Junior

"Wait good work, Roman you said Seven Hundred Thousand Lien this week?"

"That I did" I replied honestly

"Two days ago you told us you had a heist that would break a million this week!"

I knew it would be brought up at some point just didn't know when. Time to defend myself badly

"That I did but there was some complications in yesterday's heist" Neo giggled at this making me look at her, she signed at me but thankfully no one else could read sign language

_**SOME complications! Ha!**_

"Well what the hell happened Roman, we could have used that money!"

Cinder raised her hand telling him to shut up, "Now Junior Roman and Neo have been doing great work, don't do this to him"

"Yes mam" Junior quickly shut up but Cinder continued

"Only I can yell at him for sloppiness!" Shit "This meeting is ended everyone prepare with the instructions I have given you, Emerald will give you this month's cut and the supplies I promised you before you leave today. And Roman…"

I looked at her as she continued, "Don't make promises you can't keep"

She left with everyone in the room following her out of the round room. When they were all gone and it was just me and Neo she gave me a look.

_**You better watch your ass Roman, you got to pay attention in the meetings**_

I clapped my leather gloves together cracking a joke to lighten her mood, "You heard Cinder, only she can criticize me."

_**I know what you were thinking about. Get her off your head especially at work! There is only two ways we can fix this problem**_

I looked at her in wonder what her idea was

_**Either you talk to her, get rejected and end this fucking thing, kidnap her and deliver her to Cinder who will most likely kill her! And lastly you could always go good to be with Red and then Cinder would send me to kill both of you.**_

"I thought out of principle you refused to kill kids?"

_**Out of principle I listen to Cinder's orders. That principle is not dying.**_

"What about me Ice Cream? You would kill me on Cinders orders if I went good guy!" I said bragging in her face as I knew she wouldn't

_**No, I would kill you not on Cinders orders but for the fact you went good in the first place. **_

She said this with her tongue stuck out at me making my stick mine at her after replying, "Well I'm not going good, SO HA!"

_**Well then I guess you're getting rejected soon because if you bring her to Cinder I will personally kill you, NO KIDS REMEMBER!**_

"I'm not talking to Red, what am I supposed to do? Say, Oh I'm sorry I shot you a couple times, and massacred people while you stand to protect people but what the hey want to go out with me!"

_**That is why I said rejected Roman, but this problem of you being distracted won't stop until you have talked to her in some way!**_

She stormed off out of the room obviously mad at me being so stubborn about the problem. She left me in the dark, dusty officer room leaving to my thoughts. I don't care how much Neo pouts, I'm not talking to Red. Sitting there for a second I was interrupted by a buzz of my scroll. It was a text reading

_**I'm mad and when I get mad I want Ice Cream!**_

I sent her a message back

_**So?**_

She texted back

_**I'm not old enough to drive, and I can't do it illegally, my foot won't reach the gas pedal.**_

I stifled out a chuckle

_**I'll get the car.**_

_**Ruby's POV**_

Am I a horrible person? Yesterday I saw those twelve men die, riddled with bullets and scorched by flame, but that's not what's bothering me. It's still Torchwick, It's always Torchwick he has been keeping me questioning at every corner. I watched so many people get hurt because of him but I don't feel he is that for some reason. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING! Why do I feel this way! Why did he comfort me! Why did he leave the GODAMN NOTE! I wasn't able to ask him last night as he shot people! So why do I still want to ask him? I'm the good guy he is the bad guy. It's black and white but why do I feel grey? I'm the hero he is the villain, it should be that simple. I'm "The Dust Till Dawn Defender" the "Mountain Glen Guard" "Vales Vigilante" So why am I wanting to know more about the man that calls me "Red". For some reason I feel like I need to help everyone, but help him at the same time. I want to redeem him, only if the asshole could stop shooting things for me to do that. But why, why do I want to do that in the first place in the question? Another question is WHY DID HE LEAVE THE FUCKING NOTE? IM SO FLUSTERED? UGGGGGGGGGG!

"Ruby you ok?" Jaune stated to me as I looked around in the lunch room.

"Hmmm?" I replied not knowing what he meant

"You're crushing your hoagie…." Jaune said as I looked down to see my hand balled into a fist around the sandwich I was holding. I dropped it on my tray and started whipping my hand with my napkin

"Of course!" I sported a giant toothy grin.

Everyone ignored my crazy internal argument except JPR who all looked at me worriedly.

"Is this about last night?" Ren questioned

I looked at all of them who obviously were worried when they heard twelve men died last night. It had been on the news this morning with the headline 'Vales Vault Robber leaves a trail of bodies but is stopped by unknown hero'. I looked at all of them

"No it's not about last night, it's more of an internal problem I can't make sense of" I said halfway truthfully.

"Well…" I cut off Jaune knowing what he was about to say

"No I can't talk to you guys about it. It is a bit embarrassing, but can you guys still give me any advice you can?" Again it was partially true about the embarrassing part

Pyrrha looked at me with a sincere look, "You said you can't make sense of the internal problem?"

I nodded at this, "I've tried to fight it but I can't. I don't know how to stop this feeling I got"

Pyrrha chuckled at me, "Well there is your problem" I stared at her in question, "Your problem is you are trying to fight it. That may work with external struggles Ruby but on the inside you can't fight yourself. Fighting yourself in an internal problem is like trying to make a gun shoot itself. It doesn't work like that. The only way you can solve your internal struggles is finding the source of the problem and not fighting it but confronting it. Thinking it out with the source and asking yourself is it right or are you."

That strangely made sense. I can't fight any feeling I have about Roman, no matter its confusion or… something else, unless Roman is there. I have to find him, not during a heist but when it's just me and him. I have to confront the source, I have to ask about the note.

"Thanks Pyrrha, that actually helps"

"No problem Ruby, also when having a problem within yourself, be careful" She said this in a bit of a darker tone

"Why…" I asked

"Because whatever you do within yourself will effect what you do on the outside. In little ways or in life changing decisions depending on what your problem is… and since I don't know just be careful."

I thought about this for a minute. When I confront Roman what will he say, and how will I respond. Will he laugh in my face and say the note was nothing, then shoot me… or will something more erupt. Will the sincerity of that note, if it is sincere, bleed into our lives? This is the first adventure I am not excited to find out what the ending is. And this is the first adventure were I don't know which outcome is good or bad. Or which one outcome I want to be real.

I am sorry this chapter was a bit short. But I'm building up for a bigger chapter and I have already posted one today. So expect a new chapter tomorrow after 5pm east coast time at some point.


	5. Chapter 5-Juniors Club

A Scythe and a Cane- Chapter 5

Juniors Club

**Before I start out I would like to mention of these recent events. The time has passed and people are moving on but when writing this it took me so long because of the events that took place. I have taken so long to write this one short chapter because of the obvious fact that Monty Oum has passed from our lives. At some points I felt writing this was wrong. That I was ruining his story, that it was shaming Monty Oum. But I realized that what Fanfiction writers are doing In the RWBY community are not destroying his story. But we are helping keep it alive and help spreading its story around. That we are dreaming, and thinking, and loving his story enough to make our own out of it. I don't want to dwell too much on this as the time has passed and some people don't want to think about it. So a short few words will be on Monty's behalf**

**Thank you Monty Oum**

**You have made us Laugh,**

**You have made us Dream,**

**You have made us Excited,**

**You have made us Think,**

**You have made us Fight,**

**A few weeks ago you made us Cry**

**But now you make us remember**

**-Don't Say goodbyes, I hate goodbyes.**

_**ooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooo**_

_**Ruby's POV**_

I took my finger and put it up to my ear and started talking to myself

"Target in Sight" I always wanted to do that. It was a misty morning in Vale with shops just opening up. I left early this morning leaving a note saying we ran out of all the breakfast foods. I needed some poor excuse to get to work on finding Torchwick when he isn't working. At the moment I was tailing a local district head of the mafia for this part of Vale. He wore the same uniform as the guys I beat the first night I met Torchwick, so hopefully he has info on Torchwick. I've asked around about this guy's routine. Every morning his boss has him wakeup the time shops start opening to collect protection money before customers show up. The plan I have is to get this guy, get him to lead me to Vale's mafia boss, some man named Junior, and have Junior lead me to Torchwick. If Torchwick hired Junior's guys once then Junior has to know something about Torchwick.

Through the misty air and sea smell of the portside of Vale I followed the man. He went up to different market stalls collecting money for "protection" Oh I will have fun dealing with this bully. As he went up to an old fisherman who was setting up a fish stall, I ran over at him with Crescent Rose pulled out. The un-expecting man turned around just to get a face-full of my scythe's blunt end. He collapsed with a thud and his glasses getting knocked off, and he knocked out.

"Mind if I borrow him?" I grinned at the store owner pointing at the unconscious douche. The old man just responded with a nod and his eyes still wild from seeing me whack the mafia man. Grabbing the big guy by the foot I dragged him into a nearby ally way. Throwing him into a corner of the ally with the rats I stuck Crescent Rose in the ground while aiming the muzzle into his face. I grabbed a rat by the tail and placed it on his face. After a few seconds of it crawling on his face he fluttered his eyes open.

"What the… OH SHIT!" He jumped up getting the rodent off his face but slowly backed his way down when his eyes were met with my muzzle.

"You work for a man named Junior right?" I pandered in a stern voice

"Umm yea he's my boss" He swallowed while saying this as he looked like he was pissing his pants. Scythe plus threats equals Works every time.

"Does Junior know a man named Roman Torchwick?"

"Ummm… yea… Junior and Torchwick go way back" Good to know. Cocking my rifle he jumped back.

"Where can I find them?" I felt intimidating, beating up bad guys is too much fun.

"Juniors Club!" He screamed while staring down the barrel

"What's it called" He looked surprised when I said this

"That's just it, ask around in town, everyone knows the club… please don't kill me" He went back to terrified in an instant. With this new info I went back to sweat me like a light switch

"Ok thanks!" I skipped off out the ally. Now to find this Junior guy.

_**That Night**_

OK! I don't know if people are not aware of where this club is…..or I'm just bad at taking directions… probably the first one! I had been walking around for an hour asking questions about Torchwick and more importantly where was Junior's Club. Good thing Yang bought my story of going dust shopping. I would have asked Yang for directions, I know she likes to party… but that would have blown my cover. Half the people I have asked has just laughed at me, some people got real serious and told me to stay away from there, and one of Junior's guys I found I asked about Torchwick's private time so he just ran away from me… rude! Now, after I was asking forever about Torchwick and trying to find this illusive Club, I was surprised when my scroll suddenly vibrated. I pulled out of the busy sidewalk onto a staircase leading up to an apartment area. Taking out my scroll I saw I received a text from an unknown number.

_**Are you the girl in Red?-From**_

I had no idea what to say, who was this maybe?

**Yes, who are you?-Sent**

We started having a text message chat back and forth

_**Not important, I have info though-From**_

**What kind of Info-Sent**

_**You have been asking around for Roman Torchwick and the Club-From**_

**No-Sent**

_**Don't lie, I can even see you now on that staircase-From**_

I didn't like knowing they could see me and I couldn't see them but kept sending messages

**Maybe, how can you help-Sent**

_**I can send you the club's address, don't know how you couldn't find it. Also I can make sure Roman Torchwick shows up there 30min from now- From**_

**Why help me, from what you say it sounds like you know him personally-Sent**

_**From what I can tell with you alone and this not a heist when you want to find him, that this is more of a meeting then a fight-From**_

I started to text back but a text interrupted me, this girl was quick with texting

_**It just so happens… he wants to meet too. Directions are being sent to your scroll along with a pass to get into the club. The doorman will tell you where to meet Roman in the club. We will speak no more on this-From**_

Before I could react in the matter of 10 seconds a digital pass was sent to me along with GPS directions… and the number blocked me. They are really fast. I opened up the directions on my GPS for walking and followed. After 25 minutes of walking I realized why I couldn't find this place before. Why wasn't this place in the shady part of town, it's a mafia club right? I expected it to be in the shady part of downtown, but no! This club was still in the shady downtown area but the decent side of shady sides… what the hell? Maybe I think too little of these criminals. As I walked through the area of town I hadn't checked before the first thing that I saw that stood out was a huge neon sign with music coming from a big rusted door. Followed by a small line of people outside the door. The neon sign didn't even have a name written on it, just "Club" real original for a mafia boss. As I progressed in the line of people I stepped into I noticed small groups of men and women here and there walking through a side door, from the looks of it they were all associates of Junior. One was a girl in pink and brown… she was the girl from the warehouse! The one with the parasol, the one who almost killed Yang, the one who's…..winking at me? Wait did she think I was someone else? Did she recognize me, if she did then why didn't she freak out I was here?

"Holy Shit" My thoughts on the pink girl were ceased when I realized I was at the front of the line. The doorman with the gang's uniform stared at me wild eyed, "You're the girl we heard about from the Dust job!" He started freaking out and grabbed my arm when I held my hand up.

"Wait, wait! Don't draw attention!" I pulled out my scroll's digital pass that was sent to me and gave it to him.

"You got an invite from her? I… ok come in, she told me to inform you that they will be upstairs, last booth… don't fuck up the club please"

He passed me through and I walked into the club. This place was better than it looked from the outside. There was glass tile floors with glass pillars all around in the club. Indoor grown trees were placed here and there and lights flashed rainbow colors on the floors. Decent music played as decent people danced along, and if they weren't they were at the mile long bar drinking and chit chatting. This was a more respectable club, still with crime, then I thought it would be. It was nowhere near the rat hole I imagined, less crowded too. That's most likely because it's Thursday though. Looking around I noticed a glass staircase leading upstairs. Following it I ended up in a small indoor balcony with a VIP neon sign and suited men drinking. A lot of Junior's guys were drinking up here, two teen girls were on their scrolls, and finally at the far end in a small booth the man with the bowler cap was sitting chatting with Pinkie as he chewed on a cigar. He had in his other hand a glass of what I could guess was alcohol with the pink girl sucking down a milkshake, along with a glass of milk sitting next to her….. here we go.

_**Roman's POV**_

Boy have I had an aggravating day. I've been working with Adam to help move all of the dust around that we collected this month, along with Neo giving me the silent treatment for not talking about the Red situation. I didn't think a silent treatment from her would be all that bad, but it really is annoying and personally worked uggg. Finally to my bad day the wonder twins Emerald and Mercury stopped by my office to run numbers about this month for Cinder. In other words I had to work payroll duty for fucking four hours while the wonder twins complained about me. At least Neo had forgiven me a little. Around 30 minutes ago she told me to meet her at the club at this time. I was sitting there drinking down a glass of whiskey and chewing a cigar when Neo walked up the glass staircase with glee in her step. She hopped into her usual seat across from me with a smile on her face.

"Hello Ice Cream, what's got you in a glee?" I said in a surprised but monotone voice as I lifted my eyebrows.

_**I'm just happy how today has been and will be**_

She tapped on her scroll at me

"And what happened to do that, you've been angry at me all day for refusing to talk about the you know what situation"

_**Well I was angry at you, at work. We're not at work**_

She typed this to me with one hand while a milkshake was passed over to her, Neapolitan of course, Junior has this flavor custom ordered.

"Work had nothing to do with why you were mad Neo, so why aren't you now?" I intruded

_**CANT WE JUST ENJOY OURSELVES**_

The bad part was this was not typed, she gave me a glare saying these words. I can read her eyes language to a T and sign language perfectly but she always types, she only uses body language when she is serious.

"Fine, fine I'll drop it" I put my hands up as she gave me another look

_**Good**_

But right as she said this a server came back to our table and laid down a third glass, this one being milk as Neo gave them a wink. Suspiciously Neo then glared at me with a small smirk acting like she did something bad.

"Neo who is this for" I said gritting my teeth. I was screaming in my head now. She wouldn't! She couldn't! She didn't!

"Umm hi" A scared voice squeaked…. She did….

"I was told I could talk to you here" Red said with a sigh as she slid in the booth next to Neo.

"Were you now?" I growled not taking my eyes off Neo. Red seemed to notice this

"Ummm from the tone in your vo…. You didn't set up this meeting did you?" She said

"No I did not, that honor would have to go to our very own Neo here" I twirled my finger from Red to Neo.

"Now if you will excuse me" I got up lifting my cane up with me and tipping my cap. But things aren't that easy apparently as Neo gave me the scariest glare I had ever seen. I don't even want to think of what it said And in the corner of my eye I saw Red almost pouting, I don't know why but it made me sit back down with a sigh., "Ok fine, but since you organized this little shindig Neo you can start us off."

She tapped things off on her keyboard

_**Well Roman meet Red, Red meet Roman, a proper introduction now to arch enemies.**_

"Were not… arch enemies" Red piped in

"Just the knights of the opposite sides, fighting in a war we get orders in not for what we believe in. We support our causes but in the end we are foot soldiers whose job is to fight each other, not want."

I finished for her earning me a surprised look from the booth of them.

_**I never thought that you felt that way Roman… that's different**_

"Don't confuse one side of me for another Neo that is my philosophy on this, my reasoning on this is much darker… so why did you come Red? I know you hate us on the other side of the track enough to never walk in this building without your scythe deployed, so why would you even sit at a booth with me?"

She paused for a second, thinking and contemplating until she found words in the maze of thoughts

"It's like you said, we're the figure heads in a war of our leaders. If I'm going to fight you I want to know who you even are. The question is not why I'm here, a huntress always listens to a peaceful talk but the question is why haven't you killed me yet? Why did you leave that note on the armored car heist? Why did you try and cheer me up when I was crying?"

"I… I… don't know…" I couldn't figure it out. Why had I done that, why was I intrigued by Red? A deeper side of me wishes we weren't at the club but at a restaurant, and Neo wasn't here. How did that side come to place? I wasn't intrigued by Red, I was attracted to her. But how can I tell her that?

"Do… do you want the truth Red" I said blowing out a puff of smoke

"Yes" She jumped up in a cute way

"The truth is, what I said… I don't know. You are… changing me in a way that I can't explain. I'm losing my… I'm sure this sounds stupid to you."

She put her hand on my hand that was reaching for my glass. We met eye to eye as I stared down into those silver eyes, the ones filled with kindness, hope, adventure. She quickly blinked and dragged her hand away from my leather glove, "It is not stupid Torchwick, I've even…"

She looked down at her feet and then up at me, "I have that… feeling to" At these words she started gulping her glass of milk nervous of what she just said. Neo jumped up from her seat and fist pumped the air in victory glad of her victory. She then looked at me realizing she just destroyed the moment. She then pointed her thumbs at herself then downstairs telling me

_**I'm going to leave you two**_

As soon as she was gone I looked at a nervous Red. She looked at me.

"I mean, is it strange? You're Vale's most wanted and I'm a huntress, the knights of this war… but also we barely know each other!" She said this in a quick and fidgety manor.

I said in a smug manor while taking a sip of my drink, "Ever hear of love at first sight? I know love is a big step and love at first sight never happens but its meaning is still true… we are attracted to each other"

She frowned at me, "At first sight I thought you were an asshole robbing an old guy, speaking of old how were you attracted to me at first sight… aren't you like 40?" She crossed her arms

"You still got attracted back… anyways I am 21… I know I look way older but the cigars, trench coat, bowler cap, and cane will make you look older"

"Old enough to be my dad" She mumbled while snickering

"Yea haha…how old are you anyway little gal"

"15 I'll have you"

"I'm still older then you, doesn't that bother you?"

"If I was 24 and you were 30 no one would bat an eye would they?" She stated taking a sip of milk

"Touché" I said clanking glasses with her. Then I realized what was happening, "Wait are we even considering this?"

She went wild eyed and started freaking out.

"Wait NO! No! We are defiantly not!"

"Of course" I piped up

"That would be stupid"

"Well… not"

"Entirely stupid." Oh no we had finished each other's sentence…. That's bad. We both started freaking out, I looked into her eyes as we both got scared at what happened. We both hopped up knocking over our things. I grabbed my cane and spit out my cigar as she picked up her scythe from the seat. She started mumbling

"I… we… um I have to go… I will… see you later…hopefully not shooting at you!" She started sprinting away until I stopped her

"Wait!"

She turned around at me still worried about today's events

"Can I get your name at least?"

I looked into her silver eyes as she stared back into mine.

"Ruby… Ruby Rose" Within a second she disappeared into a cloud of rose petals as she raced away. Resting back down I chocked down the rest of my drink and putting a new cigar up to my lips. The sound of the outside world came back after the distraction was gone giving me a good sense of hearing the people all talking around me. She has a pretty name for a pretty face, I wonder how this will turn out. Blowing out a puff of smoke I was lost in deep thought about the girl in Red while only two words escaped my mouth…

"Ruby Rose"

oooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooo

**Thank you for your support while I tried to come up with this last chapter. I apologize for it being a tad short and late but due to the recent events I suffered extreme writers block on wanting to write again. I thank you all for your support and hope you enjoy the story sofar. I hope to have a new chapter up tomorrow but may not as school is hell in these last months. On the story I hope I left you asking questions. Both Roman and Ruby can tell they have some kind of attraction to each other but now they know that they both have it. How will this play out? How could they be together? How will their jobs affect anything they chose to be? Find out next time on A Scythe and a Cane.**


	6. Update

A Scythe and a Cane

A Quick Update

I would like to start with a formal apology to anyone who has ever read my story and I have kept waiting on a new chapter. A lot of people tell me when I apologize on author notes to not to, but this I definitely need to. I made a story that seemed so dedicated itself and took on a huge responsibility of a small ship with not enough stories on it that many people like to see. But I was not responsible myself. I have many excuses to why not I wrote a new chapter in such a long time but I'm not going to list them because they are just that, excuses. Instead I'm going to simply accept responsibility that I made any fan of this wait, and that I'm deeply sorry that it took me so long. Many people have told me that it is my story so I do not need to apologize when I don't post a chapter, or make a mistake, or change something that other people didn't want changed. But it is not my story. A scythe and a cane is all of its fans story. A world not created by me but by all of you because no matter what I write many of you see the story in different ways, and me not making a chapter is not letting you see any more of your world. This update may seem over dramatic to me not posting a simple chapter in a while but I felt it was needed. And maybe it wasn't needed, maybe none of you needed to read this, or simply didn't want to because it didn't matter, but maybe I just needed to say it. Sorry guys, and I would like you all to enjoy this new series of chapters I have coming out. A Scythe and a Cane Volume 1 pt2. Now to an update on the story itself. I have seen a couple reviews talking about our little troublemaker Neo, one in multiple about the muteness, and even though it is nowhere NEAR cannon I will touch on that topic in V1 Pt2. So any questions about that or comments on it I will give some clarity on the subject soon. Other than that I can only really update what's going on story wise in the next chapter. I don't like to spend too much on updates so without more to say. I give you all The next chapter of A Scythe and A Cane.


	7. V1 Pt2 Chapter 6-We are back

A Scythe and a Cane

V1 Pt 2

Hell yes we are back.

These events are on Friday, same week of the First Volume.

oooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo

_**Ringgggg! Ringgggg! **_I stretched my small arm over to the top of the windowsill next to my floating bed to shut off the blaring old fashioned alarm clock. A tradition Yang and I insisted on rather than using our scrolls as alarms. My outstretched arm could still not reach though just floating in the sunlight as my fingertips tried to press the tin top. I made my usual whine, "Yang"

"I got it" A loud bang was heard as a flash went off and the alarm clock was blown to bits. The loud enough sound did the alarm clocks job of waking all of us up enough to move, as pieces flew everywhere with a small gear shooting downwards under me hitting Weiss in the face.

"Must you two do that EVERY morning" She said plucking the metallic off her face and out stretching her arms as she sat up. Blake popped her head out of her blankets like a bunny leaving its hole, speaking in monotone words.

"We are running out of alarm clocks I hope you two know." She said this with a small groan as I lunged off my cot to the ground to go over to the closet. Opening it I grabbed a shiny new alarm clock that ran on gears. I shuffled back to my bed and out stretched my arm to put It on the broken bits on the windowsill next to my bed… on second thought, I slid it across the sill off the bits a bit closer to my cot. Maybe I will reach tomorrow. I did this with Weiss's nagging at me and Yang like she did most mornings.

"I told you two over and over again to just put it on my nightstand and let me do it, but noooo, Ms. Team Leader has to do it. You two are the laz…."

Yang made a thud by jumping down from her bunk onto the floor and started to speak, completely ignoring Weiss's nags as this was sort of routine. "Yea ok Ice Queen, So what's on the plan for today? And we only do most mornings not every single one"

Blake sighed over the side comment and looked at us who formed a semi-circle around her, our investigation leader. "I was out most of last night looking for leads and didn't find any, so I'll spend today after class in town looking for some, we should be able to know if anything is going on this weekend but today I got nothing"

Yang piped in, "So you don't have anything for us to do tonight?"

Blake shrugged, " Well… keep an eye out for any leads, no need to search, but after classes you guys are all free unless I call in for help if somethings on tonight."

Yang lit up as bright as her hair, "I call shower first!" Yang squealed practically. She ran inside our bathroom and slammed the door shut. We all knew how she liked to go hit the town and party on Fridays. To find out she was free to do just that she was ten times happier. Weiss groaned losing the shower to Yang. She left the room to get herself busy and do some morning rituals. Me and Blake who took showers at night as part of our four's system started to change into our uniforms. I was almost finished as I buttoned up my blouse when I heard a buzzing and looked up to my bed. I crawled up into it and laid down to look at the scroll that was vibrating. I turned it on as it told me I had received a new message, from an unknown number. I opened it up to realize it wasn't an unknown number right as I read it.

**Hello Red! –From-**

Shit

**Roman! How did you get this number? –Sent-**

**You gave me your name dearie…. Vales most wanted criminal….didn't think I could find you? –From-**

**Well why are you texting me? –Sent-**

I was waiting for a response from the device when I was interrupted by a certain girl in a bow "Ruby why are you up there? Don't fall asleep again"

I poked my head out of my beds clouding cover around it to reveal myself to her and respond, "I'm not"

She furrowed her brow slightly, "What are you doing on your scroll?" It wasn't an interrogation under a blaring light, it was just a simple question Blake had asked and she felt really nothing of it, but to me it felt like she was pelting me with questions and with a badge in her hand.

"I'm just reading my notes I took on my scroll… for Port's class"

Shit, I messed up

"Who the hell takes notes in Port's class? What is there to take note of? Ruby what are you doing?"

I could feel heat and started speaking as a snail trying to find an excuse. "I was just ummm…. I was…. I'm playing Dust Crush" I stated almost saying as a question. Blake glared at me as her eyes melted through my pale skin.

"You know Yang doesn't like you playing games before class Ruby!" Wait, HOLY SHIT, she bought it! Ok Ruby Rose play it out

"But you don't care right? We do have about 45 minutes before class"

She sat and pondered giving me a smirk, "Ok but before we start going to class I need to talk to you alone. I'm going to go get some breakfast and talk to JNPR."

"Sure" I grinned happy how the situation defused, as she walked out of the room I turned back over to look at my scroll. He had texted back

**So I was thinking… me and you, opposite sides… having some kind of feeling for each other in some way, a way we don't even know what it means… could be poetic, you think? –From-**

**Yes –Sent- **I typed this back slowly considering it.** You're not wrong, however the whole concept is very wrong. The note, me considering the note in the first place, the club, and now this… no matter how poetic, very wrong. –Sent-**

**In my line of work, the wrong things are required to figure out what is right. –From- **

It wasn't a beat later until he texted again

**Real reason I'm texting you however is because work is boring –From-**

**Then why text me? –Sent-**

**You seem not boring? –From- **

I could practically hear the tone of his voice just by the words he typed. I looked at the glowing device at the words that sprayed across it, the things said, the way said, that anything was said at all

**Roman stop this… we can't start anything, this can't happen –Sent-**

He didn't skip a beat.

**But it is happening, it did start. And I vaguely remember, you were the one searching for me last night –From-**

**And I VAGUELY remember you leaving a note in my shoe after knocking me out! –Sent-**

**It was just a show of good faith –From-**

He sent the message after a long pause of mine, I could feel the tension over the tiny pixels being sent back and forth. Eventually I responded.

**Was it really nothing? Cause I can't tell. So tell it to me strait, was it sincere or sarcastic? –Sent-**

My stomach wound up to what I had sent and as the time between the message sent and no response I could feel my insides twisting, and basically my insides tying a noose. That note started everything, but I want to know what it meant, because that could tell me what it started. Seconds felt like hours of waiting for just the slightest buzz from my scroll, but eventually I felt the refreshing vibrations. I gazed at the long message now sent.

**Red, I'm a criminal, ruthless at that. And in my years of crime I didn't ever really get affected by who I hurt or who died in the process of my success, shit I never ever gave it a thought or a damn unless they were young, then I would feel a bit sorry… but when I knocked you all out… I felt not sorry, but very bad. I felt like I had done something horrible. Not with the other girls but I saw you cough and wheeze, and collapse, for an unexplained reason… I felt the need to catch you in your fall. I looked at your limp ragdoll body and felt….sick, something clicked and changed my feelings… you changed my feelings. –Sent-**

How is all of this that on the off chance the criminal feels the need to protect the huntress… and the huntress felt safe around them back? I barely know him yet my mind can't stay off of him, it almost revolves on him. And he feels the same way? I felt a new buzz

**Umm sorry about that, it was too emotional… enough of that. I have to go Red, bye. –Sent-**

I started to type bye back but I was interrupted by an opening door. I flipped my head over to see Yang dressed in uniform. She glared up at me while dragging water out of her locks.

"RUBY! I told you no Dust Crush before class, it distracts your studies and you in class!"

I groaned and lunged off my bed to be on level with her, well… next to her. "One! How could it distract me in class when I'm not playing it, there is nothing to think about it with! It's an arcade game! There is no plot! And Two! Why do you care, you don't study?"

She blew it off love punching my shoulder, "I don't know why, you can't play games before class, all I know is that's what parents are supposed to say, and I'm here and older, I'm supposed to be the hard ass and the irresponsible big sister your supposed to learn what not to do from."

All I did was glare at her and point to parts of both of us, "Well you're doing a pretty good job" I stated pointing at my short red hair and her long gold noodles. Our small banter was interrupted by Weiss entering the room with Blake both with breakfast in their hands for the four of us. We all sat down and chowed down all the food within minutes. One by one each of us started leaving. Weiss finishing first and rushed to be the first one in her huntress economics class. I still have no idea how that class even would work…huntress economics? Yang left second with her first period on Fridays being the training room to get her woken up for the day, no doubt she would still sleep through the others. After them I finished my small meal and sat up from where I sat on the floor to leave. I walked to the door knowing I would not be focusing on Dust Crush or Class today. I started opening the door when the quiet last one in the room stopped me in my tracks with her voice.

"Ruby, remember? I need to ask you something"

_**Roman's POV**_

"What the hell do you mean by I've been distracted lately?"

It was just me and Neo so she was signing

_**Exactly what I said? You've been distracted! **_

"No I'm not, I'm perfectly up to par on my work! White fang mutts are in line, no dust trade deal has gone south with any of Vales shining community of gangs, weapon moving is perfect thanks to Adam and me, and robberies…"

She punched me in the arm with her baby knuckles which made me almost slip a giggle

_**You lost four trucks of dust this week!**_

"And robbed three, also I could have retrieved that dust if you hadn't interrupted me with your dumb love meter, how does that damn thing even work anyway? Or should I say not work, because I am no way in LOVE! Sympathy maybe, love, that's a huge stretch"

_**You practically had a date with her**_

"Which you arranged! I'd say you're the distracted one considering you're distracted with meddling in my personal life."

_**I am your fucking personal life, I'm the only personal thing in this world to you.**_

"Oh Ice Cream don't flatter yourself" I said while messing up her hair

_**We've been partners since I was almost SEVEN! We robbed a fruit stand together!**_

I crossed my arm to look childish with my finger pointing at her "And you're the one who got the bigger cut"

I received a sharp smack with her parasol and a glare as she looked up at me, pointing her finger at my chest

_**Don't lie, you know you hated bananas back then **_

A sudden tapping on the door frame as the door opened interrupted our conversation. We both snapped our heads keeping our fingers on each other to see Emerald now standing in the door frame. She rolled her eyes as she spoke "Could you guys bicker any more then you possibly do, I swear you're an old married couple."

Neo started to type to her but I spoke for both first knowing what she was going to say. "Look wasabi, please refrain from referring to me and Ice Cream as married…never call us that again… it's just"

Neo showed Emerald her glowing scroll, staring her down now pointing her finger back and forth between us.

_**It's more of a brother sister argument**_

"Ok well, Cinder wants you Neo in the meeting room about a new mission. Roman you are with Adam, he need some help "moving" some weapons to the other warehouses. He's at the trucks now, be there in five… love birds" She teased with a smirk closing the door. Neo slammed her foot on the ground as I yelled at the now closed oak door.

"Damnit it's just not like that!"

Neo still frowning turned back to me

_**Ok well I need to get going to get my assignment, can you and Adam not get shot while I'm gone?"**_

I slyly grinned and pulled out a cigar while walking out the door, I waved it in the air behind me while talking, "No promises" Flicking out my lighter I lit the stick turning to see an irritated Neo, she had crossed her arms and was looking at me with reproach.

"Neo it'll be fine. If Beacon's Dream team can't hurt me then how could some Mercs do so with me having Adam and his mutts?"

_**Couple Hours Later, Nameless Atlas Corp. Warehouse**_

I watch as the large bursts of pure death singe the goon who fell with a crash on the ground next to me, with blood deeply spreading across the top of his white armor.

"I was told this was a stealth mission Adam? Get in the warehouse quietly, steal the weapons and mechs, and take them to one of our warehouses?" I shouted to Adam over the large quantity of gunfire, who was behind a concrete barrier seven feet away.

"It is!" he shouted back

I grunted as I started to talk but a body fell dead in front of me interrupting my thoughts. "Then what's with the explosions and shooting!" I shouted as I shot an explosive round from my cane at a gigantic Mercenary guard that could have been a hunk of metal himself with the amount of armor he had on and the size he was.

"Things got a lot less stealthy!" Adam shouted with a grin in his voice as I chuckled slightly with his humor. I was interrupted by an explosion that knocked the wind out of me when the ground shook. The source of the problem was the giant merc on the other side of the battlefield. The hunk of metal wearing so much armor that my explosion barely scratched him. He was firing grenades from his launcher while his men mowed down mine painting the streets with blood. Knowing that a simple explosion wouldn't effect this pack leader I switched rounds of Cudgel to its specialty. I popped my head up from the car I hid behind and slowly squeezed the trigger with my freezing hands in my cold leather gloves thanks to the night. But the cold didn't last. As soon as I pulled the trigger my gloves were warmed, my hands sweating in the blink of an eye, telling me that it worked. The round I fired struck the Mercenary on the shoulder in an unarmored part between the chest plate and shoulder guards. This set the man into a blazing fire that was 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, charring him black as soon as he was burning a yellow red. In two seconds after being struck he was charred black as a Nethermore, as well as his steel armor melting with it coating the black. I knew I had made these rounds for a reason. I couldn't help but grin at the sight while half the Mercenaries ran in fear because their eyes betrayed them by seeing their champion scream, and screech, as he might as well been ashes in an urn the second the special flare hit him. This now presented me with a perfect chance with the men I had left. The enemies' morale was weakened, numbers dwindled, and stomachs betraying them.

"Alright boys…. OPEN FIRE!" I stated with my voice piercing the sky and my arm pulling out my secondary pistol. My thoughts were nowhere as I pulled the trigger, again, and again, and again. The cold night streets of vale were lit up like a Christmas tree as the twenty guns going off produced series of muzzle flashes and heat. The darkness soon returned and scarlet flowed down the streets. Twelve new bodies lay in the street with the nameless atlas corporation's symbol on it adding the night's body count. All of the new carcasses were barely recognizable with dozens of holes in each one with bits of bodies even falling off. We all stood from our respective covers and walked towards where the unstoppable mercenaries once stood with their heads high, some without heads now. As I walked I kept my cane held above the ground because each step made my shoes sink in a thin sticky layer of blood.

"You, Set the charges on the door"

Adam stated as he spoke to a white fang soldier. I reached the now flimsy barrier that the guards were using to find the corpses in much more detail. Thick holes shredded in steel armor gave clear views of what looked to be ground up human flesh under the plating. I gazed upon the bodies when a soft gurgle brought my eyes to a still alive mercenary, no older than 18. Kneeling down by bending my knees I examined the boy. Five gaping holes could be obviously seen in his armor but there were so many small ones I couldn't even count. He had been hit from what I could tell was his lungs too. He was gurgling, spitting, and drowning in his own blood that was slowly spilling from his mouth, and half a dozen other spots. He didn't have a chance at surviving the moment I said fire. I got up pointing my pistol to his skull. His eyes looked to be trying to widen but he was so week, "Sorry kid, you took the wrong job" I squeezed the trigger and strolled away with a frown. In four steps I found Adam overseeing the breaching charges.

"They're hiring younger, everyone in Atlas is a victim to those big head corporations, even teenagers"

Adam only shrugged his head, "Yea, but the younger they are, easier it makes our jobs"

"One, were still young, and two, tell that to the kids at beacon"

He lowered his head almost sad like and spoke softly, "Fair Point"

A mutt walked over to us, "Charges are set sir"

We got ready behind a barrier and stared at the giant warehouse metal door while looking at the blinking lights flashing around it. When everyone was behind the destroyed concrete barriers Adam nodded to the explosive expert.

"Do it"

We heard a beeping speed up and the lights of the charges flickering red and green all ending with a loud explosion and small feeling of heat spread across my skin. Smoke spread around us and we stood up looking at the smoky area of where the door once stood. Smoke cleared around the edges first with the visibility slowly going to the center of the smoke. The more we saw the more I was interested, Dozens of man controlled mech suits, a small army of robots, crates full of weapons, and the last bit of smoke cleared we saw something moving. Something from the roof jumped into the last bit of smoke and was concealed. The smoke cleared to reveal what I should have expected but didn't….

"RED" "BLAKE" "Adam" "TORCHWICK" All four names were said at the same time by different people.

I locked eyes with Red who was in battle stance, suppressed it was me, and Kitty Cat stood eyes locked with Adam who was shocked, but she obviously was not. It took us a beat, but all of a sudden all of us drawed weapons. Me aiming my gun at Blake, Adam at Red, Blake at Me, and Red at Adam… well this is fucked.


	8. Chapter 7- Awkward

A Scythe and a Cane

I hope you all liked the last chapter with the series coming back being the main event, but at the same time of me hoping all of you liked it, I want to know. So I please ask if anyone has anything, any feedback, and any comments to please leave them in the reviews. I'm not trying to beg for reviews but it really does help to see what you think in detail especially after I took such a long break between writing. It's very hard to write because I feel at most points that I'm losing something that I had in Volume One Part One that made or broke the story. With that we have the main event being Chapter Seven. So enjoy.

_**Ruby's POV**_

"Yea Blake?" I turned around taking my hand off the door handle.

"Are you...are you doing anything tonight?" She seemed nervous, very nervous for Blake's standards.

"No, not really why?" She had a long pause and almost refused to look me in the eye, she was worried, she was fidgety, and I think scared. Her hair cascaded in the moment so it covered her face like a curtain. Worrying about her hesitation, I reached out my arm clearing her Black wall from her face trying to comfort her. "Hey, it's ok, whatever you have to say you can tell me." I shrugged at her, "I'm your team leader, and we can talk about anything"

She stared at me and at my hand that parted her hair, she lightly shrugged my hand away trying not to be rude. "But that's exactly why, that's why I might not be able to tell you"

I folded my arms, "Try me then" Not to say in a rude or cocky way, but whatever she wants to tell me must be important if me being Team leader could make her want to hide it from me.

"Ok, I can tell you…but you can't tell Weiss or Yang about what I'm going to say."

"I can't ke…" The words stopped on my tongue about to mention that I could never keep a secret…but I have. I have been keeping a huge secret this entire week. The biggest secret I have ever had to keep in my life and I have kept it without a single problem or slip up…. WAIT! Hold it there Ruby Rose just because you can keep a secret, that doesn't mean you should! It all depends on the secret really. I mean I'm keeping mine about the guy I sort of, might have, the slightest bit of interest in who is a well-known criminal. What could be worse than that, other than being part of some crazy shit like a terrorist...oh yeah…

"Ruby?" My eyes fluttered realizing Blake's hand was raised waving in front of my face.

"Yeah?"

"Umm… I asked you if you could keep something from Yang and Weiss, then you froze up for around 20 second. You ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, just thinking about it…it would depend on what you want kept secret." I bit my lower lip just remembering to be reasonable, I just have to remember what I'm keeping secret and judge this accordingly.

Her eyes looked fearful than ever. She folded her fist into a knuckle and rubbed her eyes and began to speak without daring to look at me directly, "I need to go on a mission tonight, and Weiss can't know"

"Then why come to me?" Her fear stopped, she was all in now and went back to a state of blankly stating what she needed to say, but not monotone, she seemed still as bit as emotional…but not fearful.

"Well I need backup on this mission if things go wrong, and Yang needs to stay here and distract Weiss… I insisted to Yang without telling anything that she should take Weiss with her to the club tonight. I also believed with this certain mission you have more experience."

My eyebrow raised with mostly a lot of questions in mind, especially with specifics, "Why can't they know about the mission, what is the mission, and how do I have more experience for it?"

She gestured for me to sit next to her, I obliged crossing my legs after flopping on the bed near her.

"Easiest question to answer is you have more experience because you have had more work handling the enemies we are fighting. It's not grim, it's the White Fang and other goons working for the criminals of Vale"

"How would I have more experience, sure there was that robbery at Dust till Dawn but that's all more I fought them without you guys, they were simple goons too, nothing like the White Fang"

Now she turned to look me in the eyes, "I'm not talking about Dust Till Dawn." I couldn't help but feel ashamed at how she stared at me, but besides the shame only my heart froze, what did she know?

"What made you think it was a good Idea to go after Roman alone that night at the warehouse?"

I didn't want to say anything, I didn't feel safe saying anything… I got this far without a slipup, that can't end now, "How did you know?"

She was quick to respond, "Never left to go to the library, hid out there till I saw you leave with JNPR and followed you. You had been jittery all day in class, then you just want to up and leave us three in an even jitterier manner. Of course I was suspicious."

I paused, my resolve was made of glass and she was hitting it with a hammer but it hasn't cracked yet. I can't give into the fear of what she might or might not know, "I know….I know it sounds suspicious but… did you ever….tail me again"

Her voice picked up, "Wait you went after to stop him alone again?"

She sounded surprised, so surprised I doubt she tailed me when I went for my meeting with Roman. My confidence boosted far enough that I could manage to lie, well not tell the truth, a little more. , "Nothing big happened and it was only once after the warehouse, but yes I went to find Roman again"

"What did he get to steal?"

I looked at her in a confident manner trying to play off the normal act, "He didn't steal anything when I showed up." …not a lie but he didn't plan on stealing anything in the first place when I saw him. But point is, I'm clear, "You still haven't said what this mission is"

Her eyes went from being suspicious of me to being backed into her own corner that she went into. "I can't give you all the details, but I can tell you this is not one of Torchwick's heists that I'm going to, this one is headed by a guy named Adam Tauris…I have a….history with him that I rather not talk about…but the point is that, I don't want to stop the heist as the mission, I just need to talk to him, and need backup if he doesn't want to talk to me."

My first instinct was to say no, I have to tell the team…but I couldn't help but think of another person on this team that just wanted to talk to a person and didn't want to tell the team about it. Blake's brow was furrowed. She was feverously waiting an answer. Lifting my head and lifting my mind of thought I looked her straight in the eye, "….When do we leave"

_**The Corporation Warehouse-Roman's POV**_

The lasts bit of the concrete grey smoke slowly drifted away from the shattered debris and chipped wall, floating high into the pitch black night making the stars disappear the more time went on with the new cloak made from explosions. Nothing moved... nothing happened… the entire world was still and silent, with only one thing disrupting it. The smoke, it interrupted the perfect silence that was developed. The only question was, why was it silent and how was one of us not dead yet? I was careful, I kept my eyes down the sights of my pistol which lead straight into Kitty Cat's brain storage, but it was hard to do. I had the urge, my eyes trying to stay on sight darted towards Red every half a second. Why was she here? And more questionably why hasn't Adam said anything yet! My focus of my eyes shifted towards him who had his Gun trained on Red but he wasn't even looking at her. His head was cocked a full 90 degrees looking straight at Kitty in her eyes while she did the same exact thing. I decided to break the eternal silence by speaking up making sure my voice pierced the smoky air and made a slight echo, "Well now that you have made your dramatic entrance, care to tell me and my associates what you are requesting us so direly to see about?" With gun trained on the cat and eyes trained on Red as if I was asking her, not paying attention to the staring contest next to me. I lifted my eyebrow at her suggesting a slight, "What the hell is going on" without saying a word. Her response was a shrug that stated crystal clear that she didn't know either.

"Adam?" I started

His body shock and he returned to the real world with a fast and cold response, "Sargent tell Cinder we lost the supplies and take the men back to base. Tell her that I take failure into fault and will make it up to her when I get back. Roman you need to leave too."

Kitty piped up, "Ruby when they all leave you leave too."

The Sargent rested his gun on his own shoulders and spoke with a voice indicating victory, "Giving up all the goods without even fighting, I think the boss would prefer if I told her that rather than lie for you"

Adam sharply pivoted his body without a beat passing, traced his pistol on the Sargent's skull mask and squeezed his trigger. The Sargent's portly body made a thud when making his fall. On the ground now we saw a small pool created that connected slowly with the rest of the Scarlett blood.

"Who was his second in command?" Adam gritted through his teeth to get his message across.

"I am sir"

"Good, now take the men back to base, tell Cinder I lost the supplies in battle and unfortunately lost the Sargent. Then tell her when I get back I will make this up to her as I take blame for failure and only I get blame."

The second was huge but under that he was so small, "Of course, Yes Sir! Let's move out!" He didn't think twice. I didn't even have to look behind me I just heard the hurried pitter patter of military combat boots. I took one look at Red whose eyes were stuck transmitted on the dead Sargent. She was disgusted, at the blood, at how Adam handled that situation mostly. All I'm glad about is that she doesn't know where the Merc's bodies are and only my men's bodies are visible. I decided to diffuse the situation again, Jesus am I the only one who has some kind of social skills. I lifted into my suit pocket and pulled out a long Cigar, lighting the end making a small light in the black. "Ok well I will take that as my cue to leave, considering I like not having bullet holes in me, You Red, she told you to leave too, come on let me give you a lift to the some of the city that's alive. You can get a cab there." I started walking over to Red to bring her along when a small crack was heard and I found the tip of my cigar had disappeared. Cocking my head to the right, I saw Kitty with a smoking gun.

"Why would we ever trust you Torchwick to ever give her a favor and not try and hurt her?" Aww it was pitiful how ironic that was especially as she was trying to melt me with her eyes… and was failing miserably at it.

"Ok I think we can all agree tonight is kind of fucking weird, with your staring contest, wanting a private chat, me being a bit charitable and relatively the least rude person on this street. Really fucking weird but one thing is clear, that from the looks of you two that if you told Adam that Red was to not be harmed I don't think Red would be harmed. Am I correct or not?" I quickly and angrily stated shifting my head between the two Faunus

Adam sighed and rolled his head from Blake and back to me, "She's protected, see that she gets back to civilized Vale safely… safely is the key word Roman!"

I started strolling away dragging Red by her hood with me shouting behind me at the two, "Like I said, I'm surprisingly the nicest person tonight between me and you two!"

I could tell Red hated being dragged but I have to keep the image of me not liking her, so dragging it is. It only took about a minute till I turned a corner to find the car me and Adam took, but more important than a car, out of sight of those two. Spinning along the heel my face came to a girl with a Red hood, little bit ruffled…wonder why, and her arms crossed.

"Ok Red, what the fuck are you two doing here!"

She was quick to respond moving her head with a snarky attitude, "OK! One, I was dragged here by Blake, so I have had enough of that tonight. Two, what are you doing her, Blake said this was Adam's job! And Three, there is no need for that **fucking **language"

I rolled my eyes at the lame attempt to be funny on the last part folding my arms almost in imitation to respond, "Ok one, sorry about the dragging, and two Adam dragged me along on this job too!"

She uncrossed her arms and leaned against the concrete wall of the building next to us, "So neither of us knew we would run into each other?"

I leaned on the car opposite of the wall to look her in the eye, "Did I know you and your friend were going to come in here and ruin my score, I don't think so. Any other points you want to make with your little list?"

She paused for a second looking down and then back up at me, "You need to stop smoking so much"

"Ok, no not from you too! I already get enough of that shit from Neo, and if you must know she only lets me put three cigars in my jacket every morning and that's my limit for the day!"

Red rolled her eyes in disappointment, "Roman! Its Cigars not cigarettes. Three a day is still pretty horrible".

I sighed knowing I lost this battle, mostly because they were right. I stopped leaning on the car and pulled open the door of the passenger seat to reveal the leather interior of the car, "Come on, we can talk when we get on the road, If I wanted nagging, I would ask Neo."

She reluctantly got off the wall sliding into the car seat. I closed the door and made a light jog to the other side to get in. Turning on the high beams of the car I started to pull out of the quiet street completely dead in the night. Maybe there was too much things dead in this part of town.

_**Third Person- Corporation Warehouse.**_

Now alone, finally in a moment where they could share whatever thoughts they had, the silent agents of war were at loses for words. Neither could figure out what to say. Neither had the nerve. Eventually Adam was the first to speak, "Blake, why are you here?"

"Why do you think" she responded almost sad.

"Because I'm here, or should I believe you're here because you just really like warehouses"

She looked at her feet and kicked herself responding with a nervous voice but still very much serous, "Because you are here"

The tension never wanted to go away. But Adam was insisting on pushing the conversation because if they couldn't get over the tension, they could barely stop looking at each other to walk away.

"And I being here has to do with you how?"

She was done, almost exploding over nothing Blake slightly shouted, "OK! We both know what happened when I last saw you, and I'm sorry for what I did but, you know what you were doing!"

"Did you come all this way just to argue with me?"

"No! I came here to….I don't know. I have no idea what I came here to do, it's just I… I figured out where you were. I felt I needed to."

He shook his head and walked closer to her now only one body away, "Blake I don't…I feel like I needed to see you too. I'm sorry the way things fell out, but you should know. If you came here to chan…"

"No… never, I know what side you are on no matter what. I don't know what I expected coming here though."

He slowly stepped forward becoming apparent right in her face. She started to speak but he just put his hands on her arms forcing a gasp from her breath, "Adam, I…"

"I know you didn't expect anything when coming here, but I know what you wished you could expect."

He pulled her by the arms into an embrace that could have lasted forever for her. Pulling back he started to slowly bring his cold hardened mouth to her soft warm lips, it was jagged and hesitated. When their lips where a blades width apart Blake's breathing got ragged as she gasped. A beat away from the act though she pulled away.

"I'm sorry I have to…."

She didn't wait to finish her sentence before running out of the area in a sprint. Her newly warmed body was now freezing cold but she would never admit that heat wasn't the reason she wished she never left his arms.


End file.
